Indifference
by Black Beyond
Summary: Let's try this again, shall we? Old idea, completely rewritten. Usagi makes a wish and ends up somewhere she really ought not be.
1. Chapter 1

Indifference.

(Let's try this again, shall we?)

chapter 1: Wheels In The Sky

By: Echo

-

This is indeed a DBZ/SM crossover. So bear with me. It's an old idea, so I'm going to play around with it and see how it goes. I don't guarantee quality or quantity, you read at your own risk.

-

Floating in the endless mists of the Otherworld, Tsukino Usagi was cold. The only light came from the small gem that hovered before her. She gazed into its depths and knew at this pivotal moment, all the power she could ever dream of was hers to command. She had made a sacrifice, and magic older than the Earth itself had accepted it, and awaited only her command.

But she was tired. She was very tired. The fight with Chaos had exhausted her heart, and her spirit, and to her it seemed like Crystal Tokyo was nothing but a far off dream, and her heart and the ginzuishou spoke of the troubles that lay between now and then.

Somewhere in the mist, she felt a pulse from a star seed. Saturn also awaited the outcome of her decision. Outside the void, her senshi also anxiously anticipated the outcome of her rash decision to step into this void, to defeat Chaos.

She felt the pull of her destiny, of a web of threads so fine and yet so strong.

"Ginzuishou, what will the future be for me?" Finally she asked, and the crystal showed her the uncertain future in flashes of discontorted images and ideas. She watched the future unfold and felt the chill of the Otherworld seeping into her bones. The way ahead was long and troubled, and Crystal Tokyo seemed even further away than it already was.

She wondered if Pluto sometimes felt this helpless.

A wave of exhuastion hit her. The light from the ginzuishou faltered for just a second, but Usagi knew the choice must come now. Even the Gods would not wait forever. Power given can be taken away.

But she was so very, very tired.

Just a different life, in a different place, where the future really was hers to command, or perhaps, not to command, she thought hazily, her mind succumbing slowly to the drain on her resources. A place where destiny didn't hold so much sway. Far away from these ancient responsibilities..

The star seed of Saturn tried to touch her consciousness, but Usagi ignored it. She was so tired, so tired and so worn. So tired of battles where she had to decide, tired of a life where she was the holder of fate.

"Somewhere else, Ginzuishou." She whispered, closing her eyes at last.

The ginzuishou flared with light.

-

Old, ancient powers without faces and with many names heard the vague plea. They consulted each other. Before, the Moon Princess's calls to their power had been somewhat more specific.

The diety who favored the girl's soul made the decision.

The other powers acquienced.

And without another word, the whole tapestry of Destiny was changed.

-

On a small green planet hung in the depths of the Universe, several women gifted with Power watched the swirl of madness before them dissipate.

"Where is Sailor Moon?" Sailor Uranus demanded, surveying the rubble before her with a caustic eye. She turned to Pluto, and the inner senshi.

Pluto was holding on to the Time Staff, her face gray and her eyes dark. Without a sound, she fell to her knees and her body trembled.

The inner senshi cried out, and Mercury knelt beside the older soldier.

"Pluto, what is wrong? Where is Usagi? Where is Hotaru?"

Neptune made a very unlady-like sound. "Another excellent question would be, where is the Grail?" Her heart was breaking, and she was certain she would never see the small senshi of Saturn again. Her intuition screamed at her that something was very dreadfully wrong.

Mars also felt something insidious had wove its way into their futures. She ran for the place where she had last seen her princess, but there was nothing to be discovered except the smell of burnt ozone and the slowly fading dust. "Usagi!" She cried, but there was no answer for her.

"Pluto! What has happened?" Venus demanded, her eyes full of tears. "Where is Usagi-chan?"

Pluto opened her mouth to speak, but words failed her. The other senshi unconsciously gathered around her, but Pluto could only shake her head, and inexplicably, tears began to drip from her face. Jupiter held out her hand, and when he received no response, she looked at Mercury. The other soldier nodded, and they hauled Pluto to her feet, surprised at how much dead weight the oldest of them all was at that moment.

Uranus's patience snapped.

"Stop sniveling and tell us just what happened? Where is Sailor Moon, where is Chaos, where is the Holy Grail?" She all but screamed at the senshi of time. Pluto lifted her face to stare at her companions across death and destiny, and there was only sorrow there.

"Chaos is gone. The battle has been won. The Grail is now tied to the Messiah once more. The Princess has gone. Time, and the future... has been irrevocably altered. I cannot see..." She sobbed, and then continued. "I do not know what has happened."

Shocked silence met her statement. Then, Venus cried out.

"You mean Usagi is dead?"

Sailor Pluto shook her head. "I do not know. But she is no longer where any of us can feel her. She is... gone. I see no Crystal Tokyo, I see no future where she is with us. I see... nothing."

-

Chaos fled the light of the moon girl's power, a fear unlike what it had ever known powering its flight. Never had it been so sure of its own obliteration, never had anything threatened it so soundly. Only when it found itself at the furthest corner of the Universe and safetly away from that damning strength did it take pause to consider its options.

Stretching out, it found that, already, it was gaining strength. It allowed itself to feel a certain amount of satisfaction. Always, and forever, chaos was never defeated.

It pondered over recent events. It had been promised greater reign, through the shell of the one who was the Dark Messiah. But the resilance of that light, the light of the one the Power favored, had drove it back again. Having tasted Power for but a second, Chaos was already hooked.

It felt the beginnings of what might have been considered a grudge, and was unsurprised. Perhaps the right tool could be found to erase this light, or at the very least, the one whose body it was channeled through. The Gods had interfered this once, and it was likely they would not be so concerned again for a while. Perhaps chaos could tip the balance in its favor.

But what would that tool be?

The greater mass of chaos began to search where it had hold, seeking one who would be that tool, that beginning back to greatness.

While it sought the proper channel, Chaos also considered the vast unlikeliness of two Messiahs at the same point in time and space. There were always two, it was one of the ruling laws of what was. Balance, like the Powers were to its own ways of madness and uncertainity. But rarely had the two coexisted, and it seemed that the Powers had at one point tied them together with an unbreakable cord of duty. They, to rule each other, to make Chaos's influence less likely to assert itself between them.

Not only for a moment did Chaos wistfully linger on how the Universe began, when it was at its most primal and Chaos itself born with it, before order and Power began to sort it all out. Oh, those simplest seconds, when Chaos had truly ruled over what was.

Balance. Had it a face, Chaos most certainly would have sneered.

Finally, in a corner of the Otherworld, Chaos found the one he would hang his hopes on. He who had come the closest to annihilating this threat, this small humanoid whom the Power had decided to favor as his greatest advesary. Imbiding his chosen with life and darkness, Chaos felt a small, niggling little feeling that it was unused to.

Hope?

Slowly the figure of his vassal appeared before him. Eyes opened, black as night.

"What are you?" It asked, and Chaos shifted.

"We are you. And you shall rule for us." Slowly, Chaos showed his plans. And a smile began to curve on the face of his chosen avatar, and Chaos knew he had chosen well.

-

Usagi awoke with the feel of hot, gritty sand against her face. Water lapped at her feet, and very distantly away she heard the sounds of people shouting and playing. The sun beat unbearably against her back, and a soft, rolling wave of water drenched her up to her shoulders, and with a start she came to total awareness.

She sat up and opened her eyes, but all she could see was a dazzling white. For one horrible second, she thought she was blind, but upon reaching to rub her eyes, she found it was merely her hair.

Which had gone white.

She took the bone-white locks in her hands and stared at them for several minutes. "White," she said, half in shock. She tilted her head and tried to recall what had happened before she woke up. It came back in a dizzying rush, giving the Grail to Mistress 9 and Chaos. Fighting for Saturn. Jumping into a vortex of pure insanity and dark Power, and then using the ginzuishou in desperation. And then floating, dreaming, wishing. A shiver ran down her spine as she remembered exactly what she had wished for, and she finally began to take note of her surroundings.

She was looking out at an infinite expanse of the clearest, bluest ocean she had ever seen. It stetched out to the horizon, gentle waves still lapping at her feet. She sat on a beach of white sand, and a little red crab was slowly making its way back to the water.

"All in all, God, this seems pretty nice," she commented aloud, turning to look behind her.

The beach went on for several meters before meeting green grass. It seemed to her she was on a very small island, and far off, she could see a little house. She could still hear people in the distance, but she felt no harm would come to her here.

She finally looked down at herself and with another start, realized that her ginzuishou had seen fit to drop here wherever she was without a single stitch of clothing on.

She instinctively covered her chest with her arms and groaned.

"I do not find this funny," she muttered, getting to her feet. She summoned the ginzuishou and grabbed it with just a little irritation. The crystal flared slightly, and far off, she heard a shout of alarm. She jumped and turned in the direction of the yell, covering herself as best she could with one arm while the ginzuishou quickly went quiet in her other hand. It transformed itself into a small silver locket and chain as several blurs of color came rushing at Usagi.

She gave a cry of alarm and fell straight back on her bottom in the sand, pulling her legs up and covering her head with her arms.

"Some fine mess this is!" she thought, fearfully, as several thuds indicated she was no longer alone.

"Don't hurt me!" She cried aloud, not daring to look as a feeling of large power dazzled her senses. Whoever had noticed her also held Power, and it was enough to give her the sense she was about to wet herself.

"... it's just a girl, Kakorrot." A harsh, heavy male voice rang in her ears, and a set of footsteps grew closer to her. She curled up even more, trying to ignore the panic she was experiencing.

"A naked girl." Another voice said, younger and with more interest. There was a slap, and then the same voice cried out.

"Stop gawking, you brat." The other voice said.

She felt a hand lay down on her shoulder, and she jumped, and looked up into a pair of amused, friendly eyes, set in a man's face.

"Hello, there. Are you all right?" He asked, searching her face. His eyes lingered on her forehead for a minute before settling on her eyes.

Usagi squeaked a little and then flushed. "I think I'm all right. Where... where am I? Who are you?" She looked past him and saw another, shorter man with dark hair almost as crazy as the hair belonging to the man touching her, a younger man with shockingly lavendar hair, and a tall, green alien that absolutely frightened the life out of her.

"Goku, be careful." The alien was staring at her with terrifying intensity, his arms crossed forebodingly over his chest. "That surge of ki came from her."

The shorter man snorted. "Highly unlikely, Namek. She's just a child. Look at her."

"I'm looking at her," the boy with lavendar hair quipped, only to be slapped in the back of the head by the second man.

"I am Goku," the one who still had his hand on her shoulder said, not unkindly. "This is Master Roshi's island. Who are you, and how did you get here?"

Usagi was horrified to find that tears were coming to her eyes. "My name is Usagi. I don't know how I got here," she was starting to cry in earnest, scared and still exhausted. The ginzuishou hung silently in her hand. "I'm scared. Where is this place?" She began to sob, and her vision grew dark on the edges.

"Hey, don't cry. It's all right. You're okay here," Goku tried to console her, but it only made her cry harder, and before any of them could say another word, she slipped back into unconsciousness.

- 


	2. Chapter 2

Indifference

(let's try this again, shall we?)

Chapter 2 - The Cards are Dealt

Chaos's vassal examined the quarters that the entity had found for him. It was vaguely familiar, corridors of stone and marble creating a most imposing sight. The chill that eminated from the walls was not entirely physical. The whole place leaked dark Power and welcomed him eagerly. Already rooms had rearranged themselves to his taste, furniture and colors changing. It had given the vassal the feeling that the castle-like dwelling had a mind of its own, and that it wasn't the most thing to experience.

Chaos had brought it servants, and companions. Each one familiar, each one called it a name that brought forth bare snatches of memory, images that ran before its eyes and began to give it a sense of self, but the part of Chaos that dwelt within it was hard to work around.

With a twist of its hand, it brought forth a demon of the most curious proportions. The creature bowed and awaited orders, snivelling on the carpet before the basalt throne. Chaos let out a bark of insane laughter through its vassal's mouth and issued instructions for a search.

The moon princess was their objective. She must be found at all costs, at any cost. The vassal itself found this objective entirely pleasing. It had been shown images of the girl, and these images awoke a pounding desire to have, to hold, and to crush. The thirst for her burned not only from Chaos.

"Where, oh where, could our moon princess be?" It wondered aloud, conjuring a visual of the vastness of space. "You're out there somewhere. It is only a matter of time."

This time, the laughter was not only Chaos's own.

-

There were voices, hushed but close.

She rubbed her eyes and yawned. Why would Luna be talking to herself?

"Luna, cut it out. I'm trying to sleep." She rolled over and prmptly fell in the floor. It was then she noted that she was not in her bedroom. She was not anywhere she recognized, she was not in her pajamas, and her hair, which was everywhere, was not the color it was supposed to be.

And also, there was a very strange assortment of people looking at her.

And then she remembered.

The green alien man was at least familiar, but no less frightening. The shorter dark haired man was there, and so was a woman with the same blue-green hair as Michiru. A small, wizened old man also eyed her appreciatively, and without so much as an eyebrow's twitch of warning, Usagi started crying again.

"Stop making that infernal noise!"

Usagi shut up, and looked at the scowling man, sniffling and looking as pitiful as she could possibly manage.

"Vegeta, don't be mean to the poor girl." The woman stepped forward and offered her hand and helped Usagi back onto the couch where she had apparently been sleeping. She smiled at her, "My name is Bulma. Sourpuss right there is Vegeta, and the green guy is Piccolo, and this pervert here is Master Roshi. You're on his island. Which, could you tell us how you got here?"

Usagi looked from one person to the other and made up her mind.

"Well," she sniffled again, and began to pick at the strange, almost kimono-like dress someone had put her in. "I'm not very sure where here is, but... well. Where I came from, I was a soldier of sorts," she ignored the snort of bemusement from Vegeta and continued. "I had, or at least, I think I won the battle I was fighting, but..." Usagi realized with some frustration that she didn't entirely know herself what had happened. She began crying again.

"I don't know! It was over, but I was still there, where that thing, where the Chaos was, but he wasn't there. And all I had was myself, and I wanted it all to be done, I didn't want to be there anymore, and I didn't want to fight anymore, and then... I woke up here." Her hand moved up to her throat, where her locket was. She grasped it tightly and began sobbing. "And I don't know if I messed up. I never do anything right!"

"She's obviously lost her wits," Vegeta commented in derision. "She couldn't swat a fly if someone held it still for her."

Master Roshi leaned forward, his eyes glittering behind his glasses. "Come now, Vegeta. She's obviously a poor lost orphan. I'm sure she can stay with me until this matter is solved." He rubbed his hands together, only to be rewarded with a slap from Bulma.

"Not likely," she yelled.

Piccolo shook his head. "We felt a surge of power, Bulma. It had to have been her."

"Or whatever left her there," Bulma countered. Piccolo didn't look convinced, but Usagi's continued sniffling eliminated the possibility for further arguement.

Bulma sighed. "I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of this eventually. In the meanwhile... Usagi, was it? You can stay with me. It'll be a much better enviroment for you, if you can stand Vegeta." Bulma glared at Master Roshi through this speech. Usagi only hesitated a second before agreeing to this. In a most trustful way, she put her hand into Bulma's for the second time, and without much further discussion, Bulma introduced her to Capsule Corporation technology that left the blonde in excited giggles, and they most uneventfully departed.

This left Piccolo, Vegeta, and Master Roshi standing outside, watching the vehicle fly out of sight.

"Honestly, Namek. That girl is not a threat," Vegeta declared, smirking. "I've never seen something more unthreatening in my life."

Master Roshi made a soft noise of derision in his throat. "Looks can be deceiving, Vegeta."

Piccolo turned and looked up far in the sky, at some distant point. "She came from somewhere. I intend to find out where, and what, she is." Without another word, he took off into the air.

Vegeta shook his head. "I guess I'll be going as well, then. Goodbye, old man." He followed the path Bulma had taken.

Master Roshi made his way back inside the small house. He sat down in his chair and crossed his fingers together, and leaned forward to think.

-

Sailor Pluto entered the place of Time and stood before the Gates, leaning heavily on her staff. She had been so certain of the outcome, that even after the void of dark Power had faded and she felt the sudden, agonizing ripping of the future from her senses, she still expected Sailormoon to emerge from the rubble carrying an infant. She had seen it so clearly! She knew it should have been.

It had changed.

Had she failed?

If so, what had she done? What hadn't she done?

With a sigh, she walked through the Gates and down through a place few ever saw. She had been told, ages and eons ago, that the corridors of Time appeared differently to every keeper. What met Sailor Pluto was the longest hallway of mirrors, different shapes and sizes, each on containing a fragile glimpse of the past, of the present, or of the future. Walls covered in mirrors.

As she walked, clouded mirror after clouded mirror met her without answers or consolation. She had been cut off from her duty, from her Power.

It could only be punishment. It could only be from a failure. What was she without her Sight, her knowledge? She was nothing.

She had no tears left. Only an overwhelming sense of shame and disappointment filled her. She slumped to the floor and put her head in her hands, and stayed there for a very long time.

So complete was her grief, she didn't see the flash of white in the mirror closest her. A singular glimpse of a face she would have found most familiar, and most explanitory, indeed.

-

Usagi had spent a few days with the Briefs family and Vegeta, and for the most part, they had been relatively uneventful. She had become tentative friends with the small group of people that were Bulma's friends, and understood that these people were this world's version of herself. And that their power was dazzling in its ferocity.

Her only bad moments happened with Vegeta. The green one had been absent since that first day, but Vegeta seemed to haunt her footsteps. Every time she tripped or fell or broke something, he seemed to find it hilarious.

"A soldier," he would remark, and then disappear again, laughing.

She had watched him through the window of the small room he would train in, sometimes with Trunks, less frequently with Goku, whom he called Kakkorot. Their strength absolutely terrified her. It was completely inhuman. Yet, it also filled her with an extreme sense of relief. There was no job for her to do here.

The most disturbing thing she had discovered about this Earth was her startling realization they had no moon. Nothing shone in the night sky but stars, and there were much fewer of those on this planet than bedazzled the sky of her own.

She couldn't help but believe though, that this choice of hers had not ended too poorly. She had been accepted into Bulma's house like she had always lived there, and despite avid curiosity, the prying questions were kept to a minimum. She knew that they didn't believe the little bit she had told them, and wasn't very upset about it.

Today found her sitting outside the small set of buildings called Capsule Corperation, cross-legged in the grass as she watched Goku and his sons train with Trunks. Vegeta was absent, and Usagi wasn't very upset about that, either.

She absentmindedly twisted the chain of her locket in her fingers, her hair pooled around her. She hadn't quite got around yet to putting the heavy locks up into odango yet. Being there had given her a certain feeling of placidity that she had not known for what seemed like a long while.

She started and whinced as a resounding crack sent the young Goten flying into a far-off tree. She was very, very glad she had not been born into that family.

"why not let the soldier fight with you, Kakkorot? Your pet Namek seems to think she's formidable." Vegeta's smirking voice came from behind her, and Usagi felt her face go red as Goku, Gohan, and Trunks all stopped and turned to look at her, and past her.

"Don't be silly, Dad," Trunks laughed.

Usagi laughed nervously. "I'm pretty sure you guys would win." She stood up and moved so that she could see Vegeta, who stood with his fists clenched on his hips, eyeing her with a mixture of amusement and derision.

"Oh come now. You won your last battle, so you say. Why not a demonstration of what you can do?" His mocking voice held a promise that made Usagi feel positively ill with apprehension.

For a second, she thought he would come at her, but something beat him to it.

She didn't see it, but a sharp pain in her jaw lifted her with brutal voice and threw her back several feet. She saw nothing but stars for a moment, and then looked at where she had stood.

In her place stood a creature, a youma, she realized with a shock, that had a very familiar design. It was partially humanoid, and looked for all the world like a centaur. An oversized, blue, striped, ugly centaur. She couldn't place it, but her stomach twisted and it was then she noticed the now five men in very defensive postures.

"What the hell is that?" Gohan asked, in a much calmer tone than Usagi could have mustered. She put a hand to her aching face, trying not to give voice to her tears.

"I am Zebrata!" The creature howled. "And my master will be most pleased to hear from me!" Without a sound, it began to split, and became two entities, one more horse and one more human. The horse immediately phased out of sight, and Usagi felt for the first time a rush of darkness touch her mind. She knew it was negative energy, and understood how Rei had never mistaken it.

"Oh, no." She whispered.

The youma had locked its black eyes upon her, and rushed at her again. "What a prize you will be!" It crowed, before it was tackled in mid-flight by Goten. A flash of blinding light sent Goten through the air and Usagi leapt to her feet.

"Moon Cosmic Power, Make-up!" She cried, holding up the locket.

Nothing happened, and the youma had her by a fistful of her long, white hair and had lifted her into the air by it. Her piercing scream had no seeming effect on it.

Before she could register anything more than pain, she was free again and hit the ground with an ungraceful thump. She looked up and inbetween flashes of light and movements almost too fast for her to see, she realized Goku had temporarily rescued her. He fought the youma like nothing Usagi had ever seen.

She found the other men watching the fight, but it was only a second before Vegeta snorted, and raised his hand, pointing at the battle. Another flash of light, and a beam of energy rushed at the blur of limbs.

There was a small explosion that left Goku hanging in midair, looking surprised and disappointed.

"What did you do that for!" He yelled at Vegeta, looking sheepish.

"I was tired of watching that farce. That creature wasn't worth sparring." Vegeta rolled his eyes and stalked back towards Capsule Corperation.

Goku lookd down at Usagi. "Are you all right, there?" He asked, touching down on the grass beside her. Usagi nodded shakily.

"What was that thing, Goku?" Trunks asked, and Goten nodded. Gohan was just gazing speculatively at Usagi.

"I don't know, guys." Goku shrugged.

"It seemed to know her, though," Gohan held out his hand and helped Usagi to her feet. "Do you know what is was?"

"It was a demon." Usagi whispered, and started crying. "And I couldn't do anything! What have I done?" She began to bawl.

"God!" Goten exclaimed, clapping his hands over his ears. Trunks did the same, cringing.

Gohan sighed. "Dad, where do you think the other part of him went?"

"I don't know, son, but that thing could probably cause a lot of trouble, despite such a low energy level. It managed to throw Goten off." Goku's face grew serious. Usagi quieted down a bit, but still could not stop crying, her locket still gripped tightly in her hand. She was on the verge of absolute panic.

"Let's go look for it! I was bored, anyway." Trunks lowered his hands with a grin. "Hey Goten, last one to find it does one thousand push-ups!"

"You're on!" Goten laughed and the two boys were off. Gohan looked at his father, who winked.

"Usagi, go back inside in case it comes back. You'll be safe there, Vegeta's not really a bad guy. He grows on you." Goku gave her a reassuring smile. "We'll find that thing and finish up."

Usagi sniffled again as the two men took off into the sky.

She looked down at the locket in her hand. She raised it into the air.

"Moon Cosmic Power, Make-up!" She called again.

Still, nothing. 


End file.
